as Egedy explained: "Myself and my friend Shams... were joking about the sort of house music we make, [calling it] witch house because it’s, like, occult-based house music. ...I did this best-of-the-year thing with Pitchfork about witch house.... I was saying that we were witch house bands, and 2010 was going to be the year of witch house.... It took off from there. ...But, at the time, when I said witch house, it didn’t even really exist..." Shortly after being mentioned to Pitchfork, blogs and other mainstream music press began to use the term. Flavorwire said that despite Egedy's insistence, "the genre does exist now, for better or worse". Some music journalists, along with some members of musical acts identified as being in the genre's current movement, consider witch house to be a false label for a microgenre, constructed by certain publications in the music press (including The Guardian, Pitchfork and various music blogs). The genre was also briefly connected to the term rape gaze, the serious use of which was publicly denounced by its coiners, who never expected it to be used as an actual genre term, but viewed it as simply a joke intended to mock the music press' propensity towards the creation of microgenres. References Electronic music genres Fusion music genres Industrial music Experimental music genres Dark music genres Microgenres 2000s neologisms 2010s in music Indie music 2000s in music 21st-century music genres